Sports fans, Saturday is your lucky day because good things come to those who wait!
According to Mike Tirico and NBC, which aired every two minutes during last Sunday night's Bills-Dolphins game, “It's all about the fans,” as Roger Goodell and his supporters spoke on behalf of team owners. , the NFL has offered you a chance to be a part of the team. history:
All you have to do is buy Dolphins vs. Chiefs on Saturday night. This is the first NFL playoff game to be sold and watched exclusively behind a paywall, by no one but those who rely on it to further generate revenue or serve supporters. . It costs money.
That's right, lucky dogs, Tirico was happy to repeat (on order) endlessly, but unless you live in Miami or Kansas City, you'll have to buy the game, preferably on NBC's Vulture, i.e. the Peacock Channel. there is.
Clearly, this is the wave of the future, despite the lack of evidence that removing and adding pay-TV sports to maximum viewing coverage will foster both a brighter future for sports and increased revenue.
However, there is solid evidence that this is based on desire. This is because the failure to take greed for granted is not learned and is actually imitated. (See: How Pay-Per-View Killed Boxing and Made Only TV Money Significantly Damaged MLB's Popularity).
If Saturday night's game had been in Berlin, President Ronald Reagan would have declared tomorrow: Goodell, tear down this paywall! ”
All week, I will watch Saturday's game, but as a matter of principle, financially and morally, and just as I rejected the chance to win a double, I want to further improve my status as a footballer. I heard from readers that they will live without the game because of the lack of competition. People flocked to Goodell's “good investment” PSL.
But the NFL under Goodell is too self-righteous to recognize or stop the rot from within. Consider this Sunday's fabricated “exciting” ending. This season was the first more revenue-oriented 17-game season, denying mediocre and inferior teams a deserved chance at the postseason.
On Sunday, the 8-8 Bucks could only win 9-0 in a must-win game against the 2-14 Panthers. The Titans defeated the Jaguars, who had a record of 5 wins and 11 losses, with a score of 9 wins and 7 losses. The Seahawks, who had to win at 8-8, were behind the Cardinals (4-12) until the end of the game.
What was once described as “equal,” even praised, is now being trumped up by unprepared taxi squad personnel and reasonably able-bodied individuals called up from incumbents to replace injured second and third. In recent years, there have been more and more cases of extremely bad soccer being played. -Stringer.
history? This season has already been a historically bad football season assigned to a committed but incompetent quarterback. But it's all such an obvious and insulting scam that Tirico couldn't have been happier and more excited for all of us during Sunday night's telecast.
Peacock/NBC paid $110 million for this betrayal. Interestingly, NBC issued a press release last week boasting monster regular season viewership totals. But no one knows how much it will cost now. Last week, Adam Silver fined the Nets just $100,000 for basically playing no games against the Bucks.
Can't or don't want to watch Saturday night's NFL playoff game? Yes, Roger, “It's all about our fans.”
ESPN's CFP coverage was DOA
More television sports history was made this week when the commercial-filled Michigan-Washington college championship was broadcast in ESL, or English as a Second Language, for the first time.
Even the graphics looked like artificial intelligence. Michael Penix Jr., a sixth-year and two-year college quarterback at the University of California, had a season-high 10 off-platform completions a week earlier in the semifinals against Texas.
Analyst Kirk Herbstreit arrived with a bag full of clever-sounding empty nonsense, including contradictory and impossible “space efforts.”
In the first quarter alone, he spoke three times about the importance of “being on the same page” and twice mentioned his desire to “run downhill.”
And then there's shot after shot of worthless crowds before the third and fourth goals, and stupid official camera shots that once again give the audience no idea what's going on in defense and attack at key moments. I lost it.
However, the television broadcast showed a recording of an on-field ceremony in which ESPN manager Jimmy Pitaro saluted ESPN for all the good deeds it had done for children.
I wondered if Doug Adler, who was fired as a racist for falsely claiming he called Venus Williams a “gorilla” when he praised her “guerrilla” tactics, was watching. After all, Adler served as a volunteer tennis instructor to poor black children before the annual USTA tournament in Washington, D.C., before ESPN recklessly ruined his career and reputation. I did.
Instead of delivering useful information or concise key points, Mr. Herbstreit drowned the telecast in his own alphabet soup.
Instead of telling him how many yards he gained, and instead of talking about downs and distance needed, Herbstreit used the neo-ambiguous “run for plus yards” and any means necessary to “run behind the sticks.” I chose to play.
And ESPN never explained why so many “sixth grade” student-athletes attended the game.
But even though Washington lost 34-13, it decimated Michigan with a nauseating all-about demonstration.
La Paz makes a legitimate call to college basketball
Television Person of the Week was awarded to CBS college basketball analyst Steve LaPaz, who kept our eyes and minds focused on Saturday's game against Mississippi-South Carolina.
Sure, La Paz can be a little loud and excitable at times, but as a former coach (Manhattan, Villanova, Massachusetts), it's good for us that he can't help it.
In a session that elicited some wondering, he asked why SC was so protective of the “non-shooter on the outside” after MSU scored inside. Let him shoot! ” His sense of what was and was not a foul was immediately stated and then borne out by replay. And when it came to winning, he said, “I don't understand at all'' why SC, who ultimately lost at home, didn't exploit the inside mismatch, but this is also an observation that is fully supported by replays.
Top-level college basketball continues to intentionally destroy the endings of close and moderately close games.
Last weekend: The final 22 seconds of regulation (Ch. 11, here) at Miami Wake Forest on CW took 4 minutes and 10 seconds to complete.
The final game between North Carolina State and Virginia, played on the ACC Network, lasted 1 minute and 51 seconds, but three consecutive timeouts were called with 7.4 seconds remaining, and the game ended at 10 minutes and 25 seconds.
It remains to be seen if NBC USA Network's LaSalle Fordham is finished. Because the plug started to be pulled and he was unplugged again with two minutes left.
So during a paid appearance on ESPN's “Pat McAfee Show” after self-serving charlatan Aaron Rodgers gave a speech calling on the Jets to ditch all unnecessary distractions, , went on to have a very public spat with Jimmy Kimmel.
Meanwhile, McAfee, a vulgar hero to both disaffected dim-witted people with nothing else to do and the desperately attention-starved ESPN, has become the very misanthrope he derides.
our watchful recorder of truth @backatathis The X account, formerly Twitter, tracks sports betting-funded podcaster Mike Francesa's annual, infallible “My Choices Are Worth It” college football expertise Did.
Nov. 11: “Oregon is the best team in the country.”
Dec. 30: “As I've said all along, Georgia is the best team in the nation.”
Jan. 8: “I've been on the Washington bandwagon for two years.”
Another undefeated season!
